Harriet S. Brooks, Woman Suffragist

Harriet S. Brooks (1828-1888) was the most
senior of Nebraska's woman's rights activists in the years leading
up to 1882. She promoted suffrage in the pages of the Omaha
Republican, at one time edited by husband Datus C. Brooks,
and in 1880 was one of the founding members of the Nebraska Woman
Suffrage Association. College-educated and raised in Michigan,
she was active in suffrage activities there and in Illinois before
moving to Nebraska. For more information on Brooks and other
Nebraska suffragists, see Kristin Mapel Bloomberg's "'Striving
for Equal Rights for All': Woman Suffrage in Nebraska 1855-1882,"
in the Summer 2009 issue of Nebraska History.

Harriet met her husband in Albion, Michigan,
where both attended college. Datus Brooks after two years, enrolled
at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After graduation
in 1856, Brooks was hired as an assistant professor of rhetoric
and English literature and later was appointed librarian. Datus
and Harriet were married on September 7, 1858. During their time
in Ann Arbor, Harriet became active in the suffrage movement
in Michigan. She contributed articles to various newspapers and
worked to get women admitted to the state university at Ann Arbor.

In 1864 Datus Brooks resigned his position
and took a job as a literary and music critic for the Times
in Chicago. Once settled in Chicago, Harriet continued her activities
in the suffrage movement, serving as secretary for both the Cook
County Woman's Franchise Association and the Illinois Woman's
Suffrage Association. She also served as a delegate to the third
annual National Woman Suffrage Association convention in 1870.
Harriet continued to promote women's right to vote in Illinois
until 1876 when Datus became editor of the OmahaRepublican
and the couple moved to Omaha.

Harriet continued her suffrage activities
in Nebraska, contributing numerous articles to the Republican.
She was one of the founding members of the Nebraska Woman Suffrage
Association, established on May 30, 1880. On February 17, 1882,
she made an address before the Nebraska Legislature entitled,
"What Impartial Suffrage Means." Brooks was also an
active member of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, serving as
chairman of the Department of Botany and Vegetable Physiology.

As a result of Nebraska's failure to pass
a constitutional amendment establishing woman suffrage in 1882,
Brooks, perhaps out of frustration, retired from suffrage work
and turned to "the congenial study of sociology." She
died after a prolonged battle with cancer on June 22, 1888.

Harriet S. Brooks and
other woman suffragists such as Clara Bewick Colby (left) were
discussed in Kristin Mapel Bloomberg's article in the Summer
2009 issue of Nebraska History.